The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-31

we nave no way OF aScertalnlng Uhe udHSeT-
Gus STATE of affairs until the life OF some
member of our family pays the penalty OF
our negligence, and we are thus painfully
forced to investigation. How often is the
house drain laid lower in the soil than the
larger surface sewer, into which 1t is sup
posed TO empty, so that, instead of the
sewer serving as an escape pipe for the
| house drain, the sand washed from the
streets into the surface sewer eddies into
and chokes the house drain, so that its Of
fensive contents cannot es cape, prollhc
cause of much of the typhoid and typho-
malarial disorders so freqently present, es-
pecially during the season just gone by.
The following details will more fully exhibit
the force of my objections to the Duncan
ordinance Leaving the legal and constltu-
| tional questions involved in the ordinance
to the more careful study of the lawyers, |
will take up and discuss the practical diff
ferences between its operation and the
operation of the system provided for by
legislative enactment--which latter is the
| only legal system.
The average expense of making house
| drain connections with the sewer is about
Soc per running foot for siX-inch piping, or
$50 for a connection with a sewer 300 feet
| away from the lot $3.50 for one 500 feet away,
and $500 for one ZOO feet away. If am
not mistaken there are some cases in the
| city where an expense near the latter figure
has been incurred by individual lot owners.
Now, has Council any right to let such
state of affairs, such an enormous drain on
the lot owner, exist Has Council any right
to leave its own duty unattended to, when
| by its performance the taxpayer or lot
owner should be able to obtain a better and
safer house-drain connection for $l5 to $50
than he can now possibly obtain for $50 to
$500
There are between Bull, Anderson, East
Broad and West Broad streets, perhaps 5000
dwellings, perhaps 5000 or more half or
thirty feet lots According to the Duncan
ordinance, each one must have q selCer CON
| on his own hook, whether it costs $50 or
$50. Where the short connection costs $50
and the longer one $3.50, the average for
| ten lots, thirty feet each, would be about
500 to each lot. 81 ,0O0 to block, and 81, 900
| to double block-every lot owner connect
ing tcith the SeWer, according to the Ian
guege of the Duncan ordinance. Twenty
into 5000 goes 80 times; so 5000 houses at
| the same average expense for sewer connec-
600. 1t will be remembered that | am
East Broad, north Of Bay, west of West
Broad and south of Anderson streets, and
am combining myself to the section bounded
north by Bay street, south by Anderson,
east by East Broad, and west by West Broad
street. 1t is very true that the Duncan
ordinance does not propose to infict this
enormous expense on the lot owners all at
once, but only IN detail. The aggregate,
however, will be the same in the end, and
then we will have to pay more annually for
repairs than the whole system ought to cost
Improperly constructed.
Now there are between Bay and CASTOR,
East Broad and Liberty, six lanes, about
l A oh, Ill., -
tween Liberty and CASTOR, TattIall and
Price streets, four lanes, about 2, 500 feet in
length each. There are between New
Houston Anderson, West Broad and East
Broad streets three lanes about 1000 feet
each in length and there are a number of
fractional lengths of lanes east and west of
the park and parade ground, west of TAFT
nall street and east of Price, beyond Liberty
street. If every portion was covered by a
uniform plat, it would be found that so, 600
running feet of drain pipe the equivalent
of twenty lanes of 1900 running feet each
would supply this territory. Now, if this
pipe (12-inch) can be put down at
81 a foot, that would be $4,000 for
the whole, about one-sixth of which would
be chargeable to the city, and the bnlk to
the lot owners Each lot owner paying for
his share, or 5000 lot owners paying about
$4,000, makes the expense to each indi-
vidual lot owner about $14. What lot
owner escapes with that amount now for
repairs?
Let us remember also that this system
can be so readily flushed that one man can
attend to the flushing for the entire city,
| and we will see more not only of the
economy of its cost, but of the economy Cf
its operation just figure what we will
save IN repairs alone
| Some people in Savannah are ignorant
enough to believe that the surface sewer
system and house drainage system may be
so interviewed as that each i'll turn will
serve the purposes of the other. Never was
| a graver mistake made. If the sand washed
into the surface sewers from the streets
were permitted to back up into the house
drains, we should constantly have
the latter choked up and their
deadly gases driven back upon our houses.
There is another serious general misappre-
hension concerning the grade or fall neces-
sary for proper outflow of contents from
the house drain. If there were no flush, the
fall would be a very serious question; but
with the driving power of flush, pipe run
ming from West Broad to East Broad street,
with fall of five feet, can be secured from
end to end in five to ten minutes. Let any
one stand in front of a stream coming from
a hydrant, and he will get some idea of the
forward pressure.
Now, sir, taking the Duncan ordinance as
| lbS uClGt necessarily iluDiIcS, L nave
shown that its cost will not only be enor-
nous, but its work unsanitary, without the
cleansing power Of flush, totally depend
ent on the bidding streams oozing from
bathrooms and closets, and subject to all
manner of chokings and distractions, rem
dering it simply an ever-expanding death
trap!
On the other hand, have shown that
Council has the power to give us a compare
lively healthy system, free from the serious
objections involved in the application of the
Duncan ordinance, at one,fHh the expense,
and which will involve minimum outlay
for repairs Which will Council adopt!
One is legal, the other Illegal one practical
and economical, the other full of dangers
and denominations, besides being enormously
more expensive; one within our means and
conducive to our health, the other destruc-
tive to both. Again | say, which will
Council adopt! LOUIS A. FALLIGANT.
Buchu-PaiDa."
Quick complete cure, all annoying kid
ney, bladder and urinary diseases 81. At